MORTGAGE

American Home Mortgage Investment Corp., a large home lender catering to people considered good credit risks, completed its rapid descent on Monday when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The head of Freddie Mac, one of the biggest U.S. mortgage finance companies, dismissed suggestions that his company should step in to bolster sagging financial markets by buying distressed loans, the New York Times reported on Saturday.

American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. plans to close most operations on Friday and said nearly 7,000 employees will lose their jobs as the lender becomes one of the biggest casualties of the U.S. housing downturn.

Mortgage applications fell for the first time in four weeks, touching a five-month low and largely reflecting a drop in demand for home purchase loans, an industry group said on Wednesday.

Troubles are surfacing with loans made to better-off U.S. homebuyers in a worrying trend that indicates what's been termed 'The subprime crisis' may need to be rebadged 'The housing crisis' and eventually maybe just 'The crisis.'

U.S. lenders facing losses are abandoning the popular but risky loans in favor of safer opportunities.

Washington Mutual Inc. (WM.N: Quote, Profile, Research), one of the largest U.S. mortgage lenders, on Wednesday said it will stop offering some of the most popular home loans for subprime borrowers, after rising defaults caused losses to mount for dozens of lenders.

Mortgage applications rose slightly last week as a jump in refinancing demand overshadowed a drop in demand for loans to buy houses, an industry group said on Wednesday.

General Electric Co. has decided to sell its WMC Mortgage subprime lending business, the lender told employees in a memo on Thursday.

U.S. home foreclosures fell in June after jumping to a 30-month peak in May, but default rates will escalate as a horde of mortgages resets at higher loan rates, real estate data firm RealtyTrac said on Thursday.

World stocks fell and the dollar hit a record low against the euro on Wednesday after signs of fresh woes in the U.S. high-risk mortgage sector rekindled concerns about the potential impact on the wider economy.

Bank regulators tightened standards for mortgage lending on Friday in a bid to curtail risky practices that have been blamed for a record level of foreclosures.

Turbulence in the housing market remains largely restricted to the subprime sector, Timothy Bitsberger, treasurer and senior vice president at Freddie Mac, said on Tuesday.

Consolidating your student loans isn't the no-brainer it used to be.

Despite slow sales in the past four years, Americans believe their homes are worth more now than a year ago.

Amid a steady stream of headlines about turmoil in the U.S. mortgage market propelled by rising defaults of subprime loans, home buyers and owners are fast turning to traditional, long-term mortgages for home financing needs, according to a report released on Wednesday.

Shares of Beazer Homes USA Inc. (NYSE: BZH) fell more than 9 percent on Wednesday, after the company announced it had the FBI began an investigation related to the firm's mortgage business.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress on Wednesday that growing troubles in the market for risky mortgages thus far doesn't appear to be spreading to the overall economy but the situation bears close watching.

U.S. mortgage applications fell for the first time in four weeks even as interest rates dropped to a six-month low, an industry trade group said on Wednesday, offering more evidence the country's housing market slump is deepening.

Mortgage approvals rose by just three percent in August from a year ago to 71,278, British Bankers' Association data shows

Buyers in the $565 billion market for so-called sub-prime mortgage bonds are clamoring for the high-yield securities, even though experts increasingly warn that pricing has reached irrational levels.